Martinez packs it in after one term

Monday

Dec 8, 2008 at 6:56 AMDec 8, 2008 at 6:57 AM

Mel Martinez won't be remembered as one of Florida's great members of the U.S. Senate. One-term senators seldom earn that distinction in a tradition-rich chamber that places a high value on seniority. Martinez, a Republican elected four years ago, announced Tuesday that he won't seek re-election in the 2010 campaign.

Mel Martinez won't be remembered as one of Florida's great members of the U.S. Senate. One-term senators seldom earn that distinction in a tradition-rich chamber that places a high value on seniority. Martinez, a Republican elected four years ago, announced Tuesday that he won't seek re-election in the 2010 campaign.When the brief history of his single Senate term is written, it may focus more on his political failures — especially a short, ill-fated stint as chairman of the Republican National Committee — than successes.Martinez may or may not have achieved greatness, or even broad influence, in the Senate — no matter how many terms he served. But we think, and hope, history will show he was on the right side of immigration-reform legislation that failed, unfortunately, to gain passage.Martinez supported legislation — endorsed by President George W. Bush and sponsored by the Senate odd couple of John McCain and Ted Kennedy — that was designed to provide firm yet fair, principled yet practical, reforms of immigration policies and practices. In 2005, Martinez worked with another freshman member at the time — Barack Obama — to produce a compromise bill.These bills included provisions for enhancing border security and requiring illegal immigrants to seek legal status — but only after paying fines and taking other steps to conform with the law.The proposals also recognized two truths: The economy in America — and especially in states like Florida — had become highly dependent upon immigrant laborers; the "round 'em all up, and ship 'em all back where they came from" policy advocated by some politicians and commentators would have been destructive and impossible to implement.Yet Martinez was unfairly ridiculed by the Republican right wing and anti-immigration ideologues as a proponent of "amnesty" for illegal aliens. Suddenly, the story of how Martinez had immigrated from Cuba at age 15 — a compelling narrative which the GOP had once exploited — didn't matter to the hard-liners.Too bad. Immigration policies still need fundamental reform along the lines supported by Martinez, the president and the president-elect. Only the economic downturn in the United States has kept the challenges associated with illegal immigration from growing in scope.And as Martinez and other moderates on immigration suggested might happen in 2008, Hispanic and Latino voters in Florida abandoned the Republican nominee for president in droves, and Republicans have lost control of Congress.Martinez resorted to using cheap-shot labels against his opponents in the Republican primary and general election in 2004, only to see the tables turned on him during the immigration debate.But last year, to his credit, he stood up to GOP presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney for their strident stands on immigration.Perhaps Martinez got tired of the political grind and didn't like the prospect of being in the partisan minority.Maybe he was polling poorly looking ahead to a 2010 campaign. Perhaps he wants to retire or has a good gig lined up after he leaves the Senate.Whatever the case, the bad rap Martinez got from the anti-immigrant forces probably made it easier for the first Cuban-American elected to the U.S. Senate to say that, in 2010, he'll be packing his bags.